| October, 2002 |
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In the News
U.N.: Most World's Disabled Live in South, Southeast Asia
* Reprinted from Disability World
BANGKOK (AP)--Nearly two-thirds of the world's disabled people live in South and Southeast Asia, where they are locked in poverty and suffer discrimination, a U.N. agency said Friday.
Some 400 million out of the world's 600 million disabled people live in the region, said a statement by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, or ESCAP.
Most are impoverished as a result of their disabilities or face handicaps resulting from poverty, including nutrition-related problems, such as stunted mental and physical development, said the statement, citing a recent study.
Others are disabled as a result of road accidents, aging, alcohol dependence and schizophrenia.
"Poor people with disabilities are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty and disability, each being both a cause and a consequence of the other," it said.
Disabled women and girls face the most severe discrimination, and while laws have been passed by some governments to guard against it there remains a lack of enforcement.
ESCAP said there is a strong need to improve community access to education, training and rehabilitation for persons with disabilities in the region.
It will present a full study on people with disabilities in South and Southeast Asia at a meeting of regional government ministers for the 58th Commission Session of ESCAP from May 16-22 in Bangkok.
Supreme Court Update
*The following is reprinted with permission from the June 2002 NCD (National Council on Disability) Bulletin
In one of the most damaging decisions to date, Chevron U.S.A. Inc v. Mario Echazabal (No. 00-1406), the court ruled in a 9-0 decision that the ADA allows employers, not people with disabilities, to decide whether the risk of a certain job is too great, therefore excluding people with disabilities from applying or continuing to work at a position even if they pose no threat to others and they can perform all job functions and meet external health and safety standards. In so ruling, the Court gave deference to U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission regulations that expanded upon ADA's definition of "direct threat" to permit an exclusion from the workplace of people with disabilities who pose a direct threat to themselves. The Supreme Court endorsement of the "threat to self" defense encourages the view that people with disabilities need to be protected from themselves and from their choices.
In Barnes et al. v. Gorman (No. 01-682), another 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court continued its diminishment of ADA by ruling that punitive damages may not be awarded in private suits brought under Section 202 of the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. In this case, Jeffrey Gorman, who uses a wheelchair, was injured while being taken to jail in a van after his arrest for trespassing at a Kansas City bar. Police officers removed him from his wheelchair, propped him on a bench in the van and tied him with his belt. During the trip to jail, he fell and injured his shoulder and back. Kansas City did not contest the actual and compensatory damages that a jury ordered it to pay for medical costs and lost income, which were about $1 million. But the city challenged the $1.2 million punitive damage award to Gorman.
And in Zelman et al. v. Simmons-Harris et al. (No. 00-1751), a non-ADA case but one that has broad implications for disability rights, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of school vouchers. This decision will have an enormous impact on children with disabilities, because many voucher schools refuse to accept or provide services for children with disabilities. Children with disabilities are often turned away from private schools, and when they are accepted, they are often denied the protections afforded other students under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act, ADA, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Federal Respite Care Funding Bill Urgently Needed
Urge Your Members of Congress to Support S. 2489/H.R. 5241
For the families of people with disabilities, an occasional break (respite)
from the daily demands of caring for their loved ones is a necessity. But
nearly all respite programs, which are operated by nonprofit community
agencies, have long waiting lists because family caregivers often cannot
afford to pay and there is too little governmental funding. And as medicine
saves more people from dying of acute illnesses and the Baby Boom generation
gets older, the shortage of respite care is becoming a crisis. Passage of
the Lifespan Respite Care Act (S. 2489 and HR 5241) would go a long way to
remedying this crisis. So urge your Members of Congress NOW to support this
bill!
If you want to send an email regarding the Lifespan Respite Legislation to
your Congressional delegation go to:
http://capwiz.com/ucp/issues/alert/?alertid=195551&type=CO
All you do is enter you zip code and click go.